


For the Ages

by nostalgic_breton_girl



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: A Dance in Fire, Gen, Whiterun, in which i establish that blue plaques are/were a thing in 3rd era cyrodiil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-17 04:35:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29465874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nostalgic_breton_girl/pseuds/nostalgic_breton_girl
Summary: In which Skyrim tries to offer Julienne a reward for defeating Alduin.
Relationships: Female Dovahkiin | Dragonborn/Marcurio
Kudos: 7





	For the Ages

Skyrim doesn't know what to do when Alduin is defeated: offers Julienne what they know, which is to say, titles, songs about her, and copious amounts of mead. The ramshackle collection of rewards baffles her perfectly. And Skyrim, being Skyrim, thinks it is because she comes from Cyrodiil.

'No doubt you celebrate differently,' says Jarl Balgruuf, going off to think about it.

And when he returns, it is with a beaming smile, more owing to his now-useful knowledge of Cyrodiilic culture than anything else:

'Would you like a blue plaque?'

At which Julienne's eyes grow wide – but Marcurio scoffs, a reaction which neither the Jarl nor Julienne was expecting.

The blue plaque is an honour, says Julienne: Emperors have plaques on the places they've visited; great citizens of history, on the houses which they occupied, or were born in; the Champion of Cyrodiil, in all defiance of Thalmor observation, has one in Bruma, and Julienne has seen it often, stood dreaming before it – 

'And in the Imperial City, on what is in fiction the Atrius Building Commission,' says Marcurio, 'there is a plaque to Decumus Scotti.'

'And so there should be,' says Julienne, whose love of classic fiction knows few bounds. 

'Don't you think defeating Alduin merits something more?' Marcurio persists, as if he himself had done it – and at any rate he is deserving of something, for being Julienne’s pack-mule throughout: 'like… like a statue, like Corinne’s? Or monetary reward? Just something for all that trouble… for saving the bloody  _ world _ . You did something extraordinary. You need to stand up for yourself.’

When Julienne sees the plans for the blue plaque, she forgets all that Marcurio has said. They had wanted a plaque which said  _ Julienne Traven saved the world here _ , but she didn’t, not in Whiterun; they had wanted a plaque which said she lived there, but she wandered like the most curious of nomads. And after some discussion she wondered if she wanted her very name on it, or if she wanted it to be her private glory. And so they write what she eventually decided on.

They put it in the porch in Dragonsreach, beside the spot where Odahviing came to his crashing halt; and it reads simply  _ The Dragonborn was here _ .

_ The Dragonborn was here _ , Julienne thinks, when she stands before it: when she beams in private glory, inspects the reflexion in it, her blue distorted reflexion.  _ The Dragonborn was here _ : and what feet they were, which trod these boards!


End file.
